WEST ISLIP - A 16-year-old boy is in a coma after he was struck in a hit-and-run on New Year's Eve in West Islip, and a witness suggests it may not have been an accident.

Witness Brenna Krowl, also 16, says her friend Ryan McCarthy was walking along Udall Road when he was struck at around 10:30 p.m. on Monday. She says McCarthy had been walking along the busy road with another friend when someone in a passing car started yelling at the two boys.

Krowl says the boys yelled back before the driver apparently struck McCarthy and then took off. She says she believes the junior at West Islip High School was deliberately hit.